Since forming roughly 18 years ago in Huntington Beach, influential heavy-punk and hip-hop fusers (Hed) PE can't help but feel appreciative that fans still come out in throngs to see their performances.

"On the indie level that we're on, we're just lucky to have a cult following in some of these markets around the country and overseas to keep us going," said Jahred Gomes, the group's vocally dynamic frontman. "I feel really blessed that 16 years later after the first Jive (Records self-titled) album we're still out on the road making a living from this music stuff."

Anyone who has even mildly followed Hed's triumphs and tribulations knows that this band has weathered a heck of a storm. They formed at a time when the scene they frequented was riddled with substance abuse. A major label pressured them to be less creative and more cookie-cutter which inspired a swan dive into the world of label independence. And they were able to keep their heads high enough and their fans eager enough throughout those times to eventually ink a deal with Suburban Noize Records (Kottonmouth Kings/Authority Zero/Potluck) in 2006 and have been with them ever since.

"Excessive," Gomes said was the word he would use to describe his first few years in (Hed) PE. "Those times were just drug-fueled crazy times. I was definitely doing things way more than I should. Abusing my good times or whatever you want to call them. I've always had an addictive personality, but it's definitely the people you're hangin' out with or whoever... You're either gonna stop doing that stuff or it's gonna take you down really low. You're realizing that you're going to places that you don't want to in terms of life. I switched gears."

After signing a deal with Jive Records in the late 1990s, Gomes and company released three records -- their raw and energetic 1997 self-titled, the streamlined "Broke" in 2000 and the Gomes-described "corporate junk" LP that was 2003's "Blackout."

"I was just trying to please people at the record label (with 'Blackout')," Gomes said. "I learned a lot about life and myself in those times. I wouldn't erase it. That album was less of me trying to like express (myself) as an artist. I did express (myself) honestly through the lyrics but it was more of me trying to give the record label what they wanted because they were pressuring me. I learned that you never do that. You never stray away from your own artistic focus to please whoever."

After leaving Jive Records and releasing 2004's "Only in Amerika" independently, the band was able to hone the heavier, more punk-rock and less apologetic side of themselves once again. Shortly thereafter in 2006, Suburban Noize signed the group and has since helped them put out 2006's classic-punk inspired LP "Back 2 Base X," 2007's thrash-metal-esque "Insomnia," 2009's hardcore punk-driven "New World Orphans" and 2010's "Truth Rising" their most genre-fusing LP to date. Their ninth studio LP, "Ascension," should come out during "the first half of 2013."

"It's a little more reggae and dancehall, but still a lot of punk and heavy metal," Gomes said.

While Gomes and his band have taken inspiration from the likes of the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Suicidal Tendencies, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Slayer, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Bob Marley and Led Zeppelin, it has been said that (Hed) PE influenced a number of bands known for fusing metal and hip-hop that came to prominence in the late 1990s.

"That's cool," Gomes said. "It's not for me to say who I've influenced. I'm just trying to make my way as a hard-working man like everyone else who doesn't play music."

Gomes and the rest of (Hed) PE will take the stage at Nocturnum in Eureka on Tuesday, Oct. 9 with doors opening at 9 p.m. Washington alt-metal four-piece Lacero and local melodic-rockers Angels Cut will also perform. Advance passes are available online at diamondbackpresents.com.

(Editor's note: Tri-City Weekly entertainment writer Myles Cochrane is also co-producer of the (HED) PE show with Ole Persson of Diamondback Entertainment.)